About teaching and training Eskrima and Bagua. Recommended seminars, and related material I find interesting.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Tactical Hustle

There are many errors I see in peoples' movement during flow -

1) They do not move at all - Sitting target

2) They move in a predictable rhythm - Predictable target

3) They only move in response to the opponent - Behind the timing

4) They move as though the opponent is not there - Dancing their own dance/Easy to hit

Not moving is only be a good idea if you can catch your opponent off their guard RIGHT at the beginning of an encounter, before they are ready .. or then momentarily within a movement flow. After that, movement gives you SO many advantages to exploit over standing still, and keeps you SO much safer, that it's a no-brainer to keep moving. Thing is, there is a way to move that makes sense, and many many ways to move that do not. Everything you do has to have something to do with what your opponent is doing, yet in cannot be as a reaction to what they are doing. It has to be unpredictable to them, yet connected to their movement. It has to make tactical sense, keep you safe, worsen their position, and limit their options whilst keeping yours as open as possible.

It's like dancing ..... yet with a somewhat different goal ... the demise of your dance partner.

It's a skill. It's important, and though it may become intuitive, it takes practice.

Every relative position/moment between you are your opponent opens up different options. Your movement need to take away their options at that moment, forcing them to readjust. This can either be defensive (to avoid something you are doing), or offensive (moving to where they see another opening).Either way, you are protecting yourself from them by taking things away, or jamming their intent, but more importantly, setting up where they will go next.Know that and you can often set a trap. Does that answer what you were asking?

No, but it did help further my thinking as to what the final objective of movement is.

I was wondering if the errors you see in movement are mainly errors opponent’s footwork, body angling and positioning? Or their attacking, striking? Or is there not so much distinction between the two?

Footwork ... Everything else follows from that ... And yes, body angling which is related but can be missing even when someone is moving around.Footwork gives you positioning, so target and thus strike angle possibilities, defensive necessities and possible next moves.